Daily Archives: April 27, 2005

Kubosuka’s Return

Actor Kubozuka Yosuke (photo, 25) is to make his movie return after his horrific near-death experience last year. He will star alongside Hong Kong’s No.1 young star Edison Chen (24) and Kuroki Meisa (16) in “Onaji Tsuki wo Miteiru” (Looking at the Same Moon), the new feature by director Fukasaku Kenta (32). Kubozuka will play a doctor at a research hospital. He plans to appear at a PR event for the film, set to be released in November, in Tokyo tomorrow. It will be his first work appearance since the fall from his 9th-floor apartment balcony last June. Rumors that the eccentric actor was on drugs or trying to commit suicide have never been confirmed.

• Actor Hagiwara Kenichi (54) yesterday denied the charges against him on the opening day of his trial for attempted blackmail at the Tokyo District Court. “Shoken” was kicked off a movie project last summer and later allegedly made telephone threats against producers, demanding he be paid and dropping the name of a yakuza organization.

• TV Asahi’s “Houdou Station” has proven itself as the country’s leading late-night news show. Viewer ratings for Monday night, following the morning’s deadly train crash, were at 21% and almost double the 11% recorded by NHK’s 10 o’clock news. Traditionally, the country has turned to NHK for reliable coverage of the big news stories. But the public network has suffered severe damage to its reputation over the last year and “Hou-Sute” has recovered the audience loyalty enjoyed by its predecessor “News Station” for over a decade under the anchorage of Kume Hiroshi (60), who quit last year. Monday’s big news story also hurt the ratings of Kimura Takuya’s latest drama on Fuji TV, though “Engine” still managed a respectable 22.5%.